Weird growth from healed injury

[Thraezel]

About a month and a half ago, my young mystery chicken (looks like an Easter egger) Hawkeye got a nasty wound on her chest, and she was leaking food and water from it. Fortunately, we kept it cleaned and sprayed with Veterycin, and she healed up nicely, except she has this weird thing growing out from where the wound was. I think it may be a feather that got really messed up? I worried that it would catch on something and open the wound, so I carefully trimmed the loose edges off the end about 2 weeks ago, and it's like thick, flaky quill material and had what looked like crumbly dried blood in the center. Since then it just keeps growing longer. Anyone seen anything like this? Should I do anything about it? She's acting quite healthy, hanging out with the other chickens, but they free-range whenever possible and I'm worried it's going to catch on something

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I don't believe I've seen anything like that.
Can you get a photo of where it's attached/coming out of the skin?
Is it at her crop or at her breast/keel bone?

I just don't know! To me, it's one of those things I think I'd just sort of trim back as needed if it's not bothering her.

Maybe someone else has seen this before.
@azygous @Eggcessive @coach723 @dawg53

 

[dawg53]

It could possibly be an infected feather follicle (or non-infected) or the beginning of a feather follicle cyst. I havnt dealt with anything like that before.

 

[coach723]

I've never seen that before either. A picture of the base at the skin might be helpful.
If there is no swelling or signs of infection, I think I'd just trim it as needed also.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have never seen that, but I would treat it just as you are, trimming off any rough area, and watch it.

 

[azygous]

I'm in agreement with everyone. It's a mystery. But we might be able to solve it with a kitchen science experiment.

Trim the thing off at the skin. Divide it in half. Place them one each in egg cups. Pour hot water and a drop of dish soap over one, and cover the other with pure aloe vera.

Results. If the sample in the dish detergent dissolves, the sample is probably extruded food from the crop. If the other sample in aloe dissolves, it's more likely keratin, a substance from a feather shaft.

Knowing what the thing is made of can help us figure out what to do about it.

 

[Thraezel]

It finally disappeared on its own! It just took almost 2 months. I couldn't ever see the skin right at the base of the growth because she is so fluffy there, but the skin near it was a good color and not looking infected. I tried dissolving part of it in dish soap and a chunk of aloe, and both of them partially dissolved, the dish soap one dissolved slightly more, and what remained looked kinda like soggy skin, so I think it was just a weird scab thing.

 

[azygous]

Glad it resolved. Crop tears often do heal up very nicely on their own. But do keep an eye on her in case it tears open again. If that happens, you can do surgical repair on the inner crop next time with some surgical super glue https://www.revivalanimal.com/produ...MIsLWmqq2o7QIVpuHACh1okwBNEAAYAyAAEgK-HfD_BwE , and then glue the outer skin back together, and that should fix her so it doesn't keep happening.

 

[coach723]

Does sound like it may have been a scab or some tissue that died and dried up at the wound. Glad it's resolved.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the update!
I'm glad it's resolved